At The Bear Creek School in Redmond, part of the school’s vision is to raise students with wisdom, compassion and courage.

To show students an example of someone living their life this way, the school hosted Canon Andrew White Wednesday evening.

As the chaplain of St. George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad, White has experienced firsthand the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and while at Bear Creek, White sat down with the Rev. Jeff Gephart, dean of students at Bear Creek, to share some of those experiences, including how Christians and other religious minorities in the area are being attacked and slaughtered for not denouncing their religion.

“They killed many and many fled,” White said about what he has seen in Baghdad.

One example he gave of these attacks was when members of ISIS forced a member of his congregation to denounce Jesus Christ and claim Islam or else the group would kill the man’s children. White said the other man did as he was told, adding that he would have done the same in order to not see children killed.

“I would’ve said those words,” said White, who is also known as the “Vicar of Baghdad.”

He went on to add that once ISIS realized that threatening parents with killing their children was not working, the group went straight to the children and told them the same thing: Deny Christianity and turn to Islam or they would kill them. The children refused and as a result, were killed.

“The crisis is very much determined by what these evil people will do,” White told the crowd.

Gephart said one of the reasons they wanted to have White speak at the school was because it is easy to live in Redmond and be insulated from what is going on in the outside world.

“This is an area we should be aware of,” Gephart said.

He added that White’s visit was, “an opportunity to hear from somebody firsthand. It’s not a reality that we deal with.”

Despite the dangers he faces in Baghdad, he has not been deterred from his work.

In addition to having his own church, White is also president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), a charity based in the United Kingdom. The foundation funds a free medical and dental clinic at St. George’s, where nearly all the patients are Muslims, and offers other services.

While reconciliation is a major focus of White’s work, he admits it is not easy. He said he does not believe there will be peace in the Middle East any time soon as the area is so torn by conflict. White —  who is no stranger to death threats against himself as well as others who work with him — said the only way to bring about peace is by love and there is not a lot of that in the Middle East right now.

Throughout his talk on Wednesday, White also emphasized that an enemy is just someone whose story you have not heard and once you hear their story, they can become your friend.

Wayne Worley, a Bear Creek parent who attended Wednesday’s event, said the simplicity of White’s message — to love one’s enemy — was surprising, but very profound.

“Those were things I wasn’t expecting,” Worley said.

Despite all the difficulties he faces, White said he has not lost hope — thanks to the young people of Iraq.

“Without the children, I couldn’t go on,” he said. “With them, I have hope.”

While White finds hope with young people, one young person finds inspiration. Jessica Heddenhausen, a 2013 Bear Creek graduate, said seeing  White shows that it is possible to live a life emulating the school’s vision for its students.

Gephart agreed, saying having White visit Bear Creek has been significant because the canon shows that a person can be firm in their convictions, but because of their calling and beliefs, can also work for the larger good. He said White shows that this can be done with integrity to build respect among people.

“We don’t have a lot of public leaders like that,” Gephart said. “We can learn a lot from somebody like (White).”